>>get off your high horse matt. blister won't occur if you habitat is built right, not by a wet eared zookeep from texas with a napolean complex

For starters, I'm not on my 'high horse' - I was merely trying to point out that DeVosjoli did not give bad advice in his book and that the original poster sounded like he'd done his homework and already had a decently-working natural vivarium. Oh yeah, and I'm not wet behind the ears - if you read my signature line you'll see that I've been keeping herps for OVER 25 years - not exactly wet behind the ears - oh yeah, I don't live in Texas either and I don't have a Napoleon complex. I was merely trying to defend DeVosjoli's book which you seemed to have summarily dismissed as being at least half full of wrong information.

>>but rather buy someone that knows what the animal needs...zoos kill me. i've seen zoos cramp so many animals in cages just to show herps and they can't even get a plant to grow. it's sad. seeing a taiwan beauty snake on concrete
>>and being offered water in a bowl...

That may be the case with some zoos. However, I know of a lot of private hobbyists who take far worse care of animals than zoos. Furthermore, all AZA accredited zoos are overseen by stringent USDA regulations regarding sanitation and health of animals. We also have stringent AZA Taxon Advisory Group guidelines governing how we house species. As for Taiwan Beauty Snakes being housed on concrete - well, I'd like to know what zoo that is since there are only 13 individuals of the Elaphe taeniura ssp. housed in American zoos.


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>>anyway, i found that the larger concern is for moled poo and it's risk not only to the pet own, the vivarium but more importnatly to the health of the animal and the owners kids. salamenila is worse in bad enclosures then you'd think. i'm not say at all the DeV. is wrong but i'm saying that blisters is in conern with too wet a substrate and that's easily fixed. having too much pathenogenic bacteria in the vivarium is invisable and by far more dangerous.

I agree that a too-humid environment is bad. Having too-high humidity issues will lead to a bloom of potentially pathenogenic bacteria. In DeVosjoli's book he mentions in particular how water snakes which can be susceptible to blister disease did not develop the disease on the bioactive substrate. The key here is the disease did not develop because the soil conditions were right - moisture below the surface and dry on top. The original poster was merely pointing out that his substrate was hydrated properly and he was not seeing any evidence of blister disease.


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>>we have a pastel and one spider ball in a natural habitat. tall grasses and real dirt. burrows etc but maintaining it is easy with a hetatrophic bacteria mix and virosan. blisters can be fixed by turning up the air flow, and making the right substrate which is more of a construction issues the maintenance...cough cough...IMO!

I wholeheartedly agree. Proper enclosure design is everything. However, you seem to have missed my original point which was simply to say that you shouldn't condemn DeVosjoli's book outright as being half full of incorrect information. I'm sorry that you appear to have seen my post as a personal attack or in some way as me getting up on my soapbox. At least I didn't call into account your character or expertise or stoop to calling names. The purpose of these forums is the free exchange of knowledge which I hope we can do in spirit of cooperation and and in the process hopefully learn something from each other.
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Matt Campbell
25 years herp keeping experience
Full-time zookeeper
Personal collection - 21 snakes (9 genera), 20 lizards (4 genera), 6 chelonians (2 genera)

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